PACRA Maintains Stability Rating of Atlas Money Market Fund

Atlas Money Market Fund ("AMF" or the "Fund") is a low risk profile Fund. The Objective of scheme is to provide its unit holders competitive returns from a portfolio of low risk, short duration assets while maintaining high liquidity. The assigned rating reflects the Fund's strong credit and interest rate risk profile emanating from its investment strategy. As of December 2024, the Fund's asset allocation composition included approximately ~95.27% invested in Treasury Bills (T-bills), ~3.18% in Sukuks, ~1.18% held as cash, and the remaining ~0.37% allocated to other instruments. From a credit quality standpoint, around ~98.46% of the holdings were in AAA-rated or Government Securities, and ~1.54% in AA+ rated instruments. The WAM of the Fund stood at 63 days at the end Dec’24, exposing the Fund to low credit rate risk. The portfolio’s duration, also at 63 days, reflects minimal sensitivity to interest rate fluctuations. However, the top 10 investors account for 58.49% of the total assets under management (AUM). While this level of concentration introduces a moderate degree of redemption risk, the risk is deemed manageable within the current operational setup. The Fund’s considerable exposure to near-cash sovereign instruments, along with its low duration and active liquidity buffers, ensures ample capacity to absorb potential redemptions without adversely impacting its net asset value or necessitating forced asset disposals.
Going forward, the material changes in the Fund's asset allocation strategy, which could impact the Fund's credit quality and exposure to interest rate risk, would remain critical for the rating.

About the Entity
AAML, incorporated in August 2002, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shirazi Investments (Pvt.) Limited – the holding company of Atlas Group. Atlas Group, founded in 1962 with the establishment of Shirazi Investments, is a diversified group with having presence in manufacturing, power, financial services, and trading. The Company’s seven-member Board of Directors comprises five representatives of Atlas Group including the CEO, the other two are independent directors. Mr. Iftikhar H. Shirazi serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of AAML along with several other companies of the Group. The board has three committees to provide oversight on the Company’s affairs: 1) Audit Committee, 2) Human Resource & Remuneration Committee, and 3) Investment Committee. The Company had AUMs of ~PKR 121,164 mln at end of Dec'24.